Release Notes
for
Multimedia Services V3.4
for Compaq Tru64 UNIX
March 2002
Copyright 1993, 200 by Digital Equipment Corporation
All Rights Reserved
DIGITAL
Digital Equipment Corporation
Maynard, Massachusetts
Preface
This document contains the release notes for
Multimedia Services V3.4 for Compaq Tru64 UNIX (MMS).
This document contains information which became available too late to
be included in the official product documentation. Please read these
release notes thoroughly before attempting to install or use
MMS V3.4.
Associated Documents
If you have the subsets listed below installed, the HTML links should
take you to the referenced documents while viewing the HTML version
of this file from a browser.
You can also reference the HTML files from a single reference point if you
have installed any of the MMEDOC, MMEDOCDEV, or MMERELNOTES subsets and
the MMERT subset. There is a
/usr/opt/MME304/html_docs/MultimediaServices.html
file and if you have installed the MMERTCDE subset there is a MultimediaServices.html
icon in the Multimedia Services program group in the application manager.
How to Read HTML Documents
An HTML version of this document can be read as follows:
| Using netscape
| Using Mosaic
|
- Select File from the menu
- Select Open File... from the File menu
- Enter in the box labeled
Selection
/usr/opt/MME304/html_docs/release_notes.html
- Select OK in the dialog
|
- Select File from the menu
- Select Open Local... from the File menu
- Enter in the box labeled
Name of local document to open
/usr/opt/MME304/html_docs/release_notes.html
- Select OK in the dialog
|
Table of Contents
- Product Summary
- About This Release
- New Features in this Release
- Problems Fixed/Changed in This Release
- Known Problems
- General Problems and Restrictions
- Installation Notes
- CDE Problems and Restrictions
-
Waveform Audio Problems and Restrictions
-
Software H.261 Codec Problems and Restrictions
- AlphaVCR Problems and Restrictions
- Transcode Problems and Restrictions
- Further Information
- Trademarks
MMS V3.4
contains support for the following operating systems:
- Compaq Tru64 UNIX version V5.1, V5.1A and V5.1B.
Information about the supported hardware platforms for
MMS V3.4
can be found in the SPDs included with the kit.
The MMS product is provided
as a runtime kit and a development kit. The kits provide support for the
- Software MPEG compressor/decompressor (codec),
- Software JPEG compressor/decompressor (codec),
- Software Indeo® compressor/decompressor (codec),
- Software H.261 compressor/decompressor (codec),
- Software IMA ADPCM compressor/decompressor (codec),
- Personal Workstation Audio (ES1999/7) device on machines
with a PCI, EISA, or ISA bus,
- Ensoniq Audio device on machines with a PCI, EISA,
or ISA bus, and
- Microsoft Sound Board (MSB) audio device on machines with a PCI, EISA, or ISA bus.
Runtime Kit
The runtime kit is available
- On the Associated Products CD-ROM shipped with Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.1B
- On the internet, at http://www.service.digital.com/open3d
The runtime kit provides:
- Runtime support for:
- Audio Record and Playback services
- Audio Codec (Compression and Decompression) services
- Video Capture and Playback services
- Video Codec services
- Multimedia File I/O services
- CDE Multimedia Group, Icons, and Actions
- Utility client applications (in executable form only)
- compaqsound - an audio record, playback, and edit utility
- alphavcr - AlphaVCR is a video and audio record and playback utility
- transcode - Transcode is a command line AVI to MPEG file conversion utility
- audiocontrol - Audio Control is a utility to control volume and port
selection for all audio devices
- audioplay - a command line only audio playback utility
- audiorecord - a command line only audio record utility
- audioselectport - a command line only audio port selection utility
- audiodevices - a command line only audio device information utility
- Sample audio and video data
- Installation Verification Procedure
- Man pages for runtime components
- Copies of the
Multimedia Services for DIGITAL UNIX Installation Guide
and
Multimedia Services for DIGITAL UNIX Application User's Guide
in HTML and Postscript formats.
Development Kit
The development kit is available
- On the Compaq Tru64 UNIX Associated Products CD-ROM shipped with Tru64 UNIX V5.1B
- On the internet, at http://www.service.digital.com/open3d
The development kit includes the runtime kit and also provides:
- Header files needed to develop applications and products
- Sample application programs (in source form)
- Man pages for programming interface
- Copy of the
Multimedia Services for DIGITAL UNIX Programmer's Guide
in Postscript format.
This updated version of
MMS was built to work on Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.1B.
There were no problems fixed in this release.
This section lists the known problems with this release of
MMS.
This section lists the known problems with the installation for this release of
MMS.
-
If you install the MMEDRVMMSESS subset, and then do not reboot the
kernel prior to starting MMS, then the system may
crash with the panic string "BAD SYSMAP VALUE". A message is
displayed during installation to warn the user of this problem.
-
It is possible that an installation of MMS for a
diskless system (DMS) may not work.
This section lists the known problems with the MMERTCDE subset and the
CDE desktop for this release of MMS.
-
If the CDE desktop does not have enough free available colors
when you install the MMERTCDE subset, the newly available
multimedia icons on the desktop may not be visible.
It has been noted that color rich applications, such as Netscape,
exhaust a large number of colormap resources. This results in
problems with other graphical applications.
For example, the user may notice that icons normally displayed by the
CDE Application Manager are not displayed when a color rich
application is currently running on the system.
The simplest solution is to exit the color rich application. There
are several alternate actions:
-
This is a visual problem and it may not be necessary to take any
corrective actions.
For example, the CDE icon labels can be used in the same manner
as the icon for actions such as drag-and-drop, single and double
click.
-
Use the CDE Style Manager Color application to select the Number
of Colors used by the desktop or an application.
-
If supported, set an application resource to limit color usage
or start the application with a flag that controls color map
installation. Refer to the application documentation for
further details.
In the case of Netscape two work-arounds are available.
-
Use Netscape's maxImageColors resource to limit the
number of colors that Netscape uses. A suggested
limit is 96. You can do this by placing the following
line in the $HOME/.Xdefaults file:
Netscape*maxImageColors: 96
-
start Netscape with the -install flag, which specifies
that Netscape should install its own colormap. Although
this is supported, there are side affects such as:
-
Noticable application and background color changes
when focus is moved in and out of the Netscape
window.
-
Inability to clearly view the contents of the
Netscape window when focus is moved out of the
Netscape window.
This section describes problems and restrictions in the waveform audio
services along with work-arounds for the problems where known.
-
The volume reported through the waveIn/OutGetVolume is
slightly less than the volume set through the waveIn/OutSetVolume for the
Personal Workstation Audio and the MSB.
-
When recording audio, ensure that the recording volume is set at an optimal
level because if the input volume is high (either due to a setting or due to
the input source), the recording might be distorted. Use the VU Meter
in Audio Control to check if input volumes exceed the amplitude
levels that the device is capable of handling without distortion.
-
When recording data, if applications do not queue buffers
to the mmeserver before the data is available for recording, the audio devices
must handle the data in some manner. The different audio devices do not handle
this condition in the same way.
- Personal Workstation Audio and MSB
-
These devices will discard data if there are no application buffers
available for recording, always keeping the data returned current.
This section describes problems and restrictions in the video
codec services for the Software H.261 codec along with work-arounds
for the problems where known.
-
The H.261 compressor generates some artifacts for video input
which has a border within the image frame data (i.e. letterbox
movie clips).
The motion estimation algorithm is optimized for live clips with
no border present in frames. We recommend that you increase
the motion vector threshold to the maximum possible to reduce
artifacts with this type of input.
This section describes problems and restrictions in the
AlphaVCR applet along with work-arounds for the problems where
known.
-
While selecting an audio format on the Audio pane (of the
Options/Preferences screen), all formats will not be shown
if Alphavcr currently has a file open. Only formats compatible
with the current audio format in use will be displayed.
It is recommended that you select an audio format before
opening or displaying files, since Alphavcr will usually keep open
the last file used.
-
While using the Audio pane (of the Options/Preferences screen),
the "Format" line may become blank. Reselecting the "Device"
selection pulldown button will redisplay the "Format" line.
-
While recording, you may receive the message:
"Audio chunk of ... bytes too big for buffer of ... bytes."
The cause of this message has not yet been determined.
You will need to re-record your file.
-
When stepping backwards while playing an MPEG file, the correct
frame may not be displayed.
-
Some noise may be played at the end of an MPEG file.
-
AlphaVCR does not support recording without an audio device.
-
The audio and video may not be synchronized properly
when in Live mode, recording a file, and while playing MPEG files.
-
After long periods (30 minutes) of using Live Video with the Baseboard
Audio Device, the audio output may go silent.
-
When playing an Indeo format file, incorrect frames may be
displayed.
-
Saving frames of a file while playing to the video output
device will not save the correct frames. Save the frames
while playing to the screen instead.
-
When saving frames from a YUV or 24-bit Ximage file, the display image
size must be "Default" or the saved image will be bad.
-
Frames saved while using the "Full Screen" display image size will be
incorrect.
-
Saving frames while recording a mono JPEG file, or while playing an
8-bit Ximage file with a private colormap, the image saved will be all
black.
-
When using a private colormap with AlphaVCR,
the colormap is not always loaded when the video window has
focus causing incorrect colors in the video image.
-
Changing the CDE desktop colors while running AlphaVCR may change
the colors in the video window. If so, you must restart AlphaVCR to
correct the colors.
-
AlphaVCR may hang when a file is continuously played for long
periods of time. The buttons on the GUI can still be pressed, but nothing
will happen. If you then try to open another file, the application
will hang and you'll need to kill the process.
-
When using AlphaVCR to convert files (Save As), AlphaVCR will remain
locked until the conversion is complete. While AlphaVCR may appear to
be hung, it will return to user control when conversion completes.
-
Selecting Video Out & Screen from the Playback options while playing
a file will not take effect until the next file is played.
-
AlphaVCR V2.2 and V2.3 consume slightly more CPU cycles than previous
versions. On machines where 100% of the CPU was being
used, slower frame rates may be observed.
This section describes problems and restrictions in the
Transcode applet along with work-arounds for the problems where
known.
-
Although all MPEG files generated by the Transcode application can be
played with AlphaVCR, there are other MPEG decoders which may not
support MPEG Systems data streams (which contain both audio and video)
and will not be able to play the Systems format files generated by
Transcode. Specify MPEG Video format (-noaudio) as the output format
for Transcode when interfacing with these decoders.
A mailing list has been set up by a customer for discussion of
MMS and the J300 module. This mailing list is not managed
by DIGITAL, but we believe it serves as a useful medium for questions
and discussion about our product. In addition, if anyone would like to set
up mailing lists for other topics of discussion, we would be happy to
mention them in our release notes in future releases.
The following is the message posted on the InterNet about the mailing list.
DEC Multimedia Services and J300 Mailing List
The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss all aspects concerning the
DEC Multimedia Services and the J300 Multimedia TURBOchannel module.
All mail to this list must be in direct relation to the DEC Multimedia
Services and/or the J300 TURBOchannel module.
The mailing list will be open and un-moderated. We will however keep an
eye on it :-) . We hope that the following topics will be discussed:
- news about PD software using the J300 and/or DEC Multimedia
- programming hints
- discussion of problems, bugs etc.
We hope to be able to provide in the future more services such as an
anonymous ftp site for software, and, if possible, FAQ's etc.
How to subscribe:
send an email to: majordomo@foto.chemie.unibas.ch,
containing the line
subscribe j300
If the subscription succeeded, the user will be notified. After notification,
email to j300@foto.chemie.unibas.ch will be distributed to all
members of the mailing list.
The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation:
- the DIGITAL logo
- AXP, Alpha AXP, DEC, PowerStorm
The following are third-party trademarks:
- PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Incorporated.
- Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation
- Indeo is a registered trademark of Intel
- UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries
license exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd.
- Netscape is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation